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University of Florida Levin College of LawMon, 23 Feb 2015 16:36:01 +0000en-UShourly1http://wordpress.org/?v=4.1.1Expert discusses U.S. torture policyhttp://www.law.ufl.edu/flalaw/2010/04/expert-discusses-u-s-torture-policy/
http://www.law.ufl.edu/flalaw/2010/04/expert-discusses-u-s-torture-policy/#commentsMon, 12 Apr 2010 21:18:13 +0000http://www.law.ufl.edu/wpflalaw/?p=3670“You’re getting uncomfortable, and you should get uncomfortable,” Marjorie Cohn told her audience. Visible was the shuffling, squirming, and downward stares as Cohn detailed the pain, humiliation, and anguish that she says have been inflicted upon detainees in United States custody, authorized by top United States government officials.

On April 8, Cohn visited the Levin College of Law to share her outrage and legal expertise concerning the contested legality of the enhanced interrogation techniques used on detainees in U.S. custody. Cohn’s visit was hosted by UF Law’s American Constitution Society.

Cohn is a professor at Thomas Jefferson School of Law. She is also the immediate past president of the National Lawyers Guild and author of several books. In 2008, Cohn testified before the House Judiciary Committee’s Subcommittee on the Constitution, Civil Rights, and Civil Liberties concerning the Bush administration’s policies on torture. She is also the recipient of the Peace Scholar of the Year Award from the Peace and Justice Studies Association.

According to Cohn, there is no question that techniques such as water boarding are indeed torture and that the War on Terror has brought with it numerous instances of U.S.-perpetrated torture, in violation of both U.S. and international law.

“Whether somebody is a prisoner of war or not, he or she must always be treated humanely. There are no gaps in the Geneva Convention,” Cohn said.

She elaborated further, stating, “When the United States passes a treaty, it becomes law under the Supremacy Clause of the Constitution, which says that treaties shall be the supreme law of the land.”

Cohn addressed the much-publicized practice of water boarding, which she described as the practice of placing a detainee on an inclined board such that his head is below his feet and then pouring water into his nose and mouth “until he almost suffocates or drowns.”

“[Water boarding] has long been considered torture. In fact, many U.S. Federal Court decisions call it torture. Japanese generals were prosecuted by the United States for water boarding as torture,” Cohn said. She added that during the Bush administration, detainees in U.S. custody were water boarded nonetheless and, in at least one instance, a detainee was water boarded up to 183 times throughout his detainment.

Cohn argued that legal advisors to former president George W. Bush skirted U.S. and international law to authorize the use of torture against detainees in U.S. custody.

“What they did was to come up with so-called legal reasoning to fit the result that the Bush Administration wanted…they were twisting the law,” Cohn stated.

Their advice led to a 2002 announcement by George W. Bush that the Geneva Conventions did not apply to the treatment Taliban and Al-Qaeda members, Cohn said.

“There is precedent in our law for holding lawyers criminally liable for giving legally erroneous advice that resulted in great physical harm or death,” she said, advocating for Bush’s legal advisors who endorsed the use of torture to be held criminally liable. Until those responsible for implementing the practice of torturing detainees are held responsible, Cohn places responsibility for action in the hands of the citizens:“It is up to us, as citizens of this country, to pressure our government – both the White House and Congress, in any way we can.”

]]>http://www.law.ufl.edu/flalaw/2010/04/expert-discusses-u-s-torture-policy/feed/0American Constitution Society Honors UF as Chapter of the Yearhttp://www.law.ufl.edu/flalaw/2007/09/american-constitution-society-honors-uf-as-chapter-of-the-year/
http://www.law.ufl.edu/flalaw/2007/09/american-constitution-society-honors-uf-as-chapter-of-the-year/#commentsMon, 03 Sep 2007 19:00:41 +0000http://www.law.ufl.edu/wpflalaw/?p=668The University of Florida Levin College of Law chapter of the American Constitution Society for Law and Policy recently was recognized by the national organization as Chapter of the Year at its annual conference in Washington, D.C.

The chapter, founded at UF in 2003, also received the Network Building Award for Continuing Commitment to Diversity.

“The quantity and quality of our programming, as well as our willingness to collaborate with other student groups, earned us recognition on the national level,” said Chapter President Adrian Chandler (pictured left), who will graduate this December. “The chapter’s increased visibility in the national organization will greatly increase our ability to bring high caliber speakers in law and public policy to UF.”

The ACS chapter at UF has sponsored numerous lectures and debates focusing on Constitutional issues and public policy, including former U.S. Attorney General Janet Reno, Duke Law Professor Erwin Chemerinsky, and Florida Supreme Court Justice Peggy Quince. Last year, the chapter sponsored more than 40 events on campus, including the Food For Thought Lecture Series. Founded nationally in 2001, ACS is one of the nation’s leading progressive legal organizations. According to its website, www.acslaw.org, ACS is a rapidly growing network of lawyers, law students, scholars, judges, policymakers and other concerned individuals whose mission is “to ensure that fundamental principles of human dignity, individual rights and liberties, genuine equality, and access to justice enjoy their rightful, central place in American law.”

“We’ve grown by leaps and bounds in the past seven years,” said Chandler, who joined the group during her first semester of law school in Spring 2005. “Our speakers usually seek to promote progressive interpretation of the law that focuses on equal justice and civil liberties and rights and things of that nature.”

Chandler and fellow chapter member Eduardo Mordujovich were among about 150 students who received scholarships to cover the cost of registration and greatly defray travel expenses to attend the conference. Chandler also was one of about 30 students from around the country recognized by ACS as Next Generation Leaders, which will enable her to do research and writing for the organization.

“It’s very exciting and an awesome chance to network with some of the big names in law and public policy in the country,” she said. “So I’m looking forward to it. I’ll be doing more to get the organization’s name out there and I’ll be doing chapter-building and things of that nature in Florida and the Southeast.”

]]>http://www.law.ufl.edu/flalaw/2007/09/american-constitution-society-honors-uf-as-chapter-of-the-year/feed/0Discussion Puts Bush’s Temporary Workers Program in Perspectivehttp://www.law.ufl.edu/flalaw/2006/11/discussion-puts-bushs-temporary-workers-program-in-perspective/
http://www.law.ufl.edu/flalaw/2006/11/discussion-puts-bushs-temporary-workers-program-in-perspective/#commentsMon, 27 Nov 2006 00:00:40 +0000http://www.law.ufl.edu/wpflalaw/?p=4008The constitutional, labor, and national security implications of President Bush’s temporary worker program was the focus of the Immigration Law Symposium held at the Levin College of Law Nov. 14.

Professors Diane Mazur, David Hudson and Juan Perea put the current debate over immigration in historical context, discussing past amnesty acts and the military’s role in the situation.

The event, which was sponsored by CaribLaw, Military Law Student Association and the American Constitution Society, drew a standing-room-only crowd that stayed afterward to continue the conversation over a Thanksgiving feast.

“There is a pre-existing conception of what Americans are supposed to look like, sound like,” said Perea. Perea took the position that, absent overpopulation, or high unemployment, there is no real “immigration problem,” despite much media commentary to the contrary.

According to Perea, although the concerns about immigration are rarely expressed in racial terms, the problem that many people seem to have with Mexican immigration is that the immigrants have brown skin and they speak Spanish, therefore threatening a pre-existing conception of the United States as a predominantly white and English-speaking country.

With regards to the guest worker program, he said, it was nothing new and had been done in the 1910s, 20s and 50s. Mexican immigrants come, and are invited to stay, because the United States is so dependent on Mexican laborers.

He pointed out that Mexican immigrants invited in during times of labor shortage were then expelled when the shortages ended. Mass expulsions of Mexican laborers occurred during the depression and after World War II to make room for American workers in the job market. Many U.S.-born American citizens, children of Mexican laborers, were expelled from the U.S. together with their parents.

“It is a cycle of invitation and expulsion,” he said.

Hudson said the immigration questions to be asked were whether they should be allowed to stay, and under what label, adding that the slate was unclear on the issue.

He spoke of previous amnesty acts that allowed those who had been here for at least five years to become naturalized, but denied naturalization to family members who were not in the U.S. with them. There are some good things that can be repeated and some things that can be changed, he said.

Mazur, who served as a captain in the United States Air Force, spoke about immigration concerns with respect to the military.

She spoke about the tension caused by dual state-federal command over National Guard forces. State governors may not want to assign these forces to border patrol, but federal law prohibits the President from federalizing them for that purpose.

Mazur supported Congress’ role in limiting the president’s power over state militia, saying, “We blur this very important civil military boundary that I think is implicit in the way the constitution was written.”